多年前，当我购买Microsoft Word for DOS 5.0时，它的包装盒中附带了三本手册：一本解释程序，一本引导用户创建打印机驱动程序，一本用于内置编程语言(programming language)。有些人认为那些旧的DOS程序并不复杂。🙂 现在，当然，有Microsoft Office程序套件，所有这些程序都有很长的功能列表，而且盒子里没有手册。Microsoft Office Professional 2013 Step By Step旨在为普通用户提供自信使用新Office所需了解的所有内容的概览(Office). 这本书真的涵盖了基础，并很好地解释了一切吗？它是Office 用户(users)需要的参考吗？让我在这篇评论中谈谈这个。
介绍Microsoft Office 专业版 2013(Microsoft Office Professional 2013)
介绍说这本书是为初级和中级用户（一步一步(Step By Step)系列书籍的普通读者）设计的。不同之处在于本书中使用的示例是针对企业和组织而不是针对个人用户的。由于在工作中使用Microsoft Office的人(Microsoft Office)需要(work need)快速上手并快速感到自信，我认为这是一个很好的方法。这些插图似乎是面向Windows 8用户的，但这并没有太大的区别。最后，Office 2013在Windows 7和Windows 8中的工作方式相同。
本书涵盖Word、Excel、PowerPoint、Outlook、OneNote、Access和Publisher。像大多数技术书籍一样，它可以按任何顺序阅读，您可以直接跳到您需要的部分。如果您购买印刷版(print edition)，则通过O'Reilly Media 网站(O'Reilly Media web)的链接和特殊的访问代码包含(access code)PDF电子书版本。我强烈建议您购买电子书版本（这是我正在查看的版本），因为它可以更轻松地搜索特定信息。我已经过时了，知道如何有效地使用综合索引（这本书肯定有，仅索引就有 48 页！）但是在PDF 文件中搜索(PDF file)对大多数人来说工作得更快。还有一个练习文件的链接，读者可以下载，以跟随整本书的练习。我建议也获得这些，因为练习旨在解释这些概念。本书也可用作Office 365的参考，因为它包含与(Office 365)Microsoft Office Professional 2013相同的工具。
开始，一步一步
Microsoft Office Professional 2013 Step By Step首先对所有(Microsoft Office Professional 2013 Step By Step)Office应用程序共有的功能进行了良好、扎实的介绍。每个都有详细的解释，并且有很好的说明来定制和个性化所有东西，尤其是功能区。根据我的经验，人们要么爱要么恨丝带(ribbon)。通过这本书的定制和个性化说明，我怀疑大多数讨厌丝带(ribbon)的人可以将它的刺激因素(irritation factor)降低到最低限度(bare minimum)，并开始对它感到宾至如归。还有一张图表可以帮助读者判断(reader determine)哪款Office 2013申请最适合手头的工作。例如，我曾经在一个办公室工作，人们希望使用Excel作为数据库。尽管这是Excel可用于的用途之一，但使用Access会更好。如果能有这样的图表来支持我解释为什么应该改变政策的尝试，那就太好了。这并不是因为我碰巧是办公室里唯一一个知道如何使用这两个程序的人。🙂
Office 2013中有很多新功能，以前版本的用户可能需要一些练习才能学会使用。所有这些都有一个全面的列表，并带有大量全彩插图，尽管没有详细描述这些功能。主题(Themes)（在以前的版本中可能被称为样式或样式表）得到了广泛的说明，并且有练习文件可以帮助学习过程(learning process)。Microsoft提供了一个大型的预先设计的主题和模板库，您可以从(Microsoft)Backstage视图轻松浏览这些库。还有后面的PowerPoint的链接(PowerPoint)想要创建自己的主题的人的章节。这个概念对某些人来说可能是新概念，尤其是没有使用过Word和Excel （ Office最常见的两种业务用途）的设计和布局功能(design and layout capabilities)的人。这本书很好地介绍了这个概念，我认为几乎任何人都会很快掌握它。微软办公专业版 2013(Microsoft Office Professional 2013)还可以通过云或公司的内部网轻松与其他用户共享文件。这对某些人来说也可能是新的。幸运的是，有一个非常广泛的章节讨论了这是如何完成的。正如标题所承诺的那样，这个概念被逐步探索，从简单到复杂。我认为任何不熟悉此特定功能的人都会从阅读本章中受益匪浅。介绍部分最后讨论了触摸和平板计算(touch and tablet computing)，解释了Office 的平板版本与(Office differ)桌面版本(desktop version)有何不同。并解释触摸屏上使用的常用命令。我不确定触摸屏在普通办公室的使用范围有多广，但信息清晰易懂，而且由于这是一种新的做事方式，因此最好有这种帮助来解释它。
Office 2013 应用程序
正如我所提到的，这本书涵盖了Word、Excel、PowerPoint、Outlook、OneNote、Access和Publisher。对于任何一本书来说，这是一个很大的领域，特别是如果它要装入不需要超人(Superman)举起的包裹中。详细讨论所有部分超出了本评论的范围——这样做会使评论几乎与本书一样长。我想给你我对整个应用程序章节的印象。当我阅读处理每个单独应用程序的部分时，我对作者在解释他们的主题方面的透彻印象深刻，没有偏离正题或添加大量会增加页数(page count)和目标受众的废话(target audience)会没有阅读的兴趣。编辑们明确地选择了他们的作者小组，着眼于能够清晰写作并知道他们在说什么的人。各个部分的写作有点不平衡，但是当您有七个具有自己个人风格的人（包括7 个教程的(7 Tutorials')主编 Ciprian Adrian Rusen ）时，这是可以预料的。(Adrian Rusen)插图清晰、切中要害、内容丰富，练习文件经过精心设计，可以帮助新手度过有时令人生畏的过程，让他们轻松使用如此复杂的软件。
总而言之，我对任何部分都没有挑剔，而且我相信这些说明对于本书的目标读者(target audience)（具有初学者到中级技能的人）非常有用。Microsoft Office Professional 2013 Step By Step还可以帮助熟悉旧版本的人快速掌握最新版本。
结论
Microsoft Office Professional 2013 Step By Step是一本很好、扎实的参考书(reference book)。它以简单易懂的方式解释了Office Professional 2013的所有组件。我认为对于想要对使用Office(Office)充满信心的人来说，这将是一本极好的指导手册(instruction manual)。配套的电子书和练习文件(companion e-book and practice files)绝对是一个加分项，并增加了很多价值。这本书由一群经验丰富的作者写得很好，他们清楚地了解他们的主题，更重要的是，知道如何很好地解释它们。1200+多页的优秀参考书(page reference book)，涵盖了很多领域。即使在一个 业务设置(business setting)，我不认为任何人都可能需要使用Microsoft Office Professional 2013的每个组件，因此一本只涉及业务所需组件的书可能是更好的选择。
判决
由于这本书既冗长又有些昂贵（45美元(USD)），最好先尝试一下，看看您是否真的需要所有这些信息。要么从你最喜欢的公共图书馆借阅它，要么从有良好退货政策(return policy)的书商那里购买。我对这本书本身没有挑剔，如果你买了它，你会得到很好的指导，可以将你的工作知识扩展到最常用的少数应用程序之外，所以绝对值得完整浏览并补充你自己的想法。
Book Review - Microsoft Office Professional 2013 Step By Step
Years ago, when I bought Microsoft Word for DOS 5.0, it came with three manuals in the box: One to explain the program, one to walk the user through creating printer drivers, and one for the built-in programming language. And some people think that those old DOS programs weren't sophisticated. 🙂 Now, of course, there is the Microsoft Office suite of programs, all of which have a long list of features, and NO manuals come in the box. Microsoft Office Professional 2013 Step By Step is designed to give a good overview of everything the average user will need to know to be confident in using the new Office. Does this book really cover the bases, and explain everything well? Is it a reference that Office users will need? Let me talk about that in this review.
Introducing Microsoft Office Professional 2013
The introduction says that the book is designed for beginning to intermediate users (the usual audience for Step By Step series books). The difference is that the examples used in the book are geared to businesses and organizations rather than to individual users. Since people who use Microsoft Office at work need to get up to speed and feel confident quickly, I think this is a good approach. The illustrations appear to be geared toward Windows 8 users but that doesn't really make much of a difference. In the end, Office 2013 works the same both in Windows 7 and Windows 8.
The book covers Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, and Publisher. Like most technical books, it can be read in any order and you can skip through to just the parts you need. If you buy the print edition, a PDF e-book version is included via a link to the O'Reilly Media web site and a special access code. I would highly recommend getting the e-book version (which is the one I am reviewing) because it makes searching for specific information much easier. I am old fashioned enough to know how to use a comprehensive index efficiently (which the book definitely has, at 48 pages for the index alone!) but a search in a PDF file works a lot faster for most people. There is also a link to practice files the reader can download, to follow along with the exercises throughout the book. I'd recommend getting those as well since the exercises are designed to explain the concepts. This book can also be used as a reference to Office 365 since it includes the same tools as Microsoft Office Professional 2013.
Getting started, step by step
Microsoft Office Professional 2013 Step By Step begins with a good, solid introduction to the features that are common to all Office applications. Each is explained in detail, and there are excellent instructions for customizing and personalizing everything, especially the ribbon. It's been my experience that people either love or hate the ribbon. With the book's customizing-and-personalizing instructions, I suspect most ribbon haters can reduce its irritation factor to the bare minimum and begin to feel at home with it. There is also a chart that will help the reader determine which Office 2013 application is best for the job at hand. For example, I once worked in an office where people were expected to use Excel as a database. Although this is one of the things Excel can be used for, it would have been better to use Access. It would have been nice to have a chart like this available to back up my attempt to explain why the policy should have been changed. It wasn't because I happened to be the only person in the office who knew how to use both programs. 🙂
There are a lot of new features in Office 2013 that users of previous versions may need some practice to learn to use. There's a comprehensive listing of all of them, with plenty of full color illustrations, although the features are not described in much detail. Themes, which in previous versions might have been called styles, or style sheets, are illustrated extensively, and there are practice files to help with the learning process. Microsoft provides a large library of pre-designed themes and templates, which you can easily browse through from the Backstage view. And there's a link to the later PowerPoint chapter for people who'd like to create their own themes. This concept may be new to some people, especially people who have not used the design and layout capabilities of Word and Excel (the two most common business uses for Office). The book does a very good job of presenting this concept and I think almost anyone will grasp it quickly. Microsoft Office Professional 2013 also makes it easy to share files with other users, either via the cloud or via a company's intranet. This too may be new for some people. Fortunately there is a really extensive chapter that deals with how this is done. The concept is explored, as the title promises, step by step, moving from the simple to the complex. I think anyone who is new to this particular feature would benefit greatly from reading this chapter. The introductory section concludes with a discussion of touch and tablet computing, explaining how the tablet versions of Office differ from the desktop version and explaining the common commands used on touch screens. I am not sure how widely touchscreens are in use in the average office, but the information is clear and easy to understand, and since this is a new way of doing things it's good to have this kind of help explaining it.
The Office 2013 applications
As I mentioned, the book covers Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, and Publisher. That is a lot of territory for any one book to deal with, especially if it is to fit inside a package that doesn't need Superman to lift. Talking about all the sections in detail is beyond the scope of this review—to do that would make the review nearly as long as the book. I'd like to give you my impressions of the application chapters as a whole. As I read through the sections that deal with each individual application, I was impressed by how thorough the authors were in explaining their subjects, without going off on tangents or adding in a lot of blather that would inflate the page count and that the target audience would have no interest in reading. The editors clearly chose their panel of authors with an eye to people who can write clearly and know what they're talking about. The writing is a little uneven from section to section, but that's to be expected when you've got seven people (including 7 Tutorials' editor in chief Ciprian Adrian Rusen) with their own individual styles. The illustrations are clear, to the point, and plentiful, and the practice files are well designed to help the newcomer through the sometimes daunting process of becoming at ease with such sophisticated software.
All in all, I could find no fault with any of the sections and I believe that the instructions would be very useful to the book's target audience of people with beginner-to-intermediate skills. Microsoft Office Professional 2013 Step By Step would also help people who are familiar with older versions get up to speed quickly with the newest one.
Conclusions
Microsoft Office Professional 2013 Step By Step is a good, solid reference book. It explains all the components of Office Professional 2013 in a straightforward, easy-to-understand way. I think it would be an excellent instruction manual for just about anyone who wants to gain confidence in using Office. The companion e-book and practice files are definitely a plus and add a good deal of value. The book is well written by a group of experienced authors who clearly know their subjects and, more importantly, know how to explain them well. However, having said that—this IS a good solid 1200+ page reference book, and it covers a lot of ground. Even in a business setting, I don't think it is likely that anyone is going to be required to use every single component of Microsoft Office Professional 2013, so a book dealing with just the components the business needs might be a better bet.
Verdict
Since the book is both lengthy and somewhat expensive ($45 USD) it would be a good idea to try it out first, to see if you really need all this information. Either check it out of your favorite public library or buy it from a bookseller with a good return policy. I'm not finding fault with the book itself, and if you buy it, you will then have great instructions for expanding your working knowledge beyond the few applications that are most often used, so it is definitely worth browsing in its entirety and making up your own mind about it.
